dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

FREEEAST TURKISTAN SYMPOSIUMwherever they are and they should be severely punished.” A documentary film,entitled “Terrorists in East Turkistan”, made by TV 9 of the Chinese CentralTV Institution presented the Uyghur Turks as the cause of the violence in EastTurkistan and tried to connect the violent events with Uyghur Turks both insideand outside the region; these violent actions were directly defined as terroristactions.The Chinese government takes any opportunity to carry out propagandaand has greatly benefited from such efforts. In 2002, the East Turkistan IslamicMovement (ETIM) was included on the “Terror List” of the USA, and laterthat of the UN, due to alleged ties with Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. Itwas claimed that the reason for this decision was that the ETIM had conducted“attacks on civilians”. Thus, China has attempted to depict the Chinese oppressionin East Turkistan as being carried out for purposes of homeland security, trying tokeep the USA uncritical of such actions and human rights violations, which areincreasing with every passing day in the region. As a part of this strategy, one cansee that the phrases “Muslim Uyghur People”, “Uyghur Terrorists”, “Jihad” and“East Turkistan” are frequently used in the same sentences in the Chinese media.It can also be stated that the imprisonment of some Uyghurs in Guantanamoas a result of the American operation in Afghanistan against “Radical IslamistTerrorists” has added grist to China’s mill.Chinese authorities have extended the scope of the concept of terrorismso widely that even individual crimes, for example, homicide and robbery, areregarded as terrorist actions and the right to a fair trial has been severely violatedthrough arbitrary executions and heavy penalties.The violation of ethnic and religious rights in East TurkistanThe first significant violation by the Chinese in the regions populated byTurkic communities is that the name of the region was changed to Xinjiang-meaning “newly-conquered lands” in Chinese- after the occupation in 1884 andthe use of the old name “East Turkistan” was officially prohibited.It would not be correct to say that only Uyghur Turks live in the region.The Uyghur Turks constitute the largest part of the population, but there isanother equally large community in the region, namely the Muslim Chinese440